The news for Jason West and Vince Zampella, formerly of Infinity Ward (now at the new studio Respawn Entertainment) was perhaps what they expected. The motion by Electronic Arts to dismiss the case was denied.

The judge decided today that there was enough evidence for the case to press on toward trial. It is expected that the actual trial will start in about May of this year, but legal experts following the case believe that there are at least several more rounds of legal maneuvering prior to the case actually going to trial.

Perhaps one bright spot was that Judge Elihu Berle dismissed one of the four claims in the suit: the claim that alleged EA met with West and Zampella and their agents while they were still employed with Activision, which was a breach of their Activision employment contracts. West and Zampella allege that Activision terminated them both to avoid paying $36 million in royalties owed to them for Modern Warfare 2. Activision redistributed at least part of those royalties to the remaining employees at Infinity Ward in an effort to keep them from jumping ship. Still, a number of employees left Infinity Ward to follow West and Zampella to Respawn.

As for Respawn itself, little is known about what they might be working on. While some rumors had indicated that we would know something by now, so far nothing has actually emerged from the new studio. The latest whispers suggest that the studio will announce what they are working on at E3 this year; but so far, West and Zampella have not confirmed this publicly.

In January, West and Zampella accused Activision of attempting to drag out the court proceedings in an effort to exceed the salary payments that the pair was getting from Respawn. Legal experts that we have spoken with tell us that even if West and Zampella are able to win their case against Activision, it will likely be years before they are able to collect even part of what they are owed. In the meantime, the legal costs for the pair continue to mount.

With the release today of Call of Duty: Black Ops we already know that developer Treyarch and Activision have another hit on their hands. The big question is how many copies it will sell, and according to a number of retail sources, it is now expected that Black Ops will top Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in sales.

Retailer GameStop had most of its stores in North America open at midnight for the launch of Black Ops, and fans were lining up at retailers as early as noon yesterday eagerly awaiting their chance to get their hands of the title. GameStop isn’t the only retailer that received higher than expected pre-orders for the game. Sources confirm that they have more pre-order copies of this title than they did for Modern Warfare 2, which, of course, is a good sign.

While Activision isn’t talking numbers yet, it is a given that they are expecting the game to became the best selling game ever, or close to it when Tuesday ends. Activision has placed a much larger promotional push behind Black Ops and it is expected that the title will deliver. The midnight launches have gone well and now it is more of a question of how quickly the remaining copies that retailers have will sell.

Retail contacts we spoke with claim to have ample stock of Black Ops, so we will have to see if this is still the case when Tuesday ends.

Retail sources in North America are confirming that they, too, are experiencing a much higher than expected pre-order rate for the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops. This matches what Game Stop was already reporting.

Game Stop has declared that the number of pre-orders for Call of Duty: Black Ops is running ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and it is expected to outsell Modern Warfare 2 at release, if the trend continues. Retailers that we have spoken with are also saying that they seeing the same thing.

One retailer told us, “It is actually quite surprising, as the numbers for the Treyarch Call of Duty games have never been as strong, in my experience; but we will go with the trend and order additional inventory to have on hand for those that didn’t take the time to pre-order.” Modern Warfare 2 has sold over 20 million copies worldwide and Black Ops is on pace to outperform it.

The wild card in all of this might be none other than the new Medal of Honor title from Electronic Arts. The analysts we have spoken with suggest that a strong showing by this title could have either a negative or positive impact on the sales of Black Ops. While the pre-orders for the new Medal of Honor title are breaking the record for the franchise, it is unknown if players will just play Medal of Honor to tide them over till Black Ops arrives or if they will stop playing it and move right to Black Ops.

Being released almost a month ahead of Black Ops could end up being an advantage or disadvantage, and we will not know till Black Ops arrives starting on November 9th.